Flight Of The Mini-concords

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Imagine streaking across the Atlantic at more than 1,000 miles an hour in your own 80 million dollar private jet. Edit International

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Imagine streaking across the Atlantic in your own private plane at fighter jet speed and partying for three hours from New York to London.

By Ron Laytner
and Mark Miller
Copyright 2009
Edit International

The unforgettable Concorde ended its 40-year-career of speeding between continents in 2003. But her sexy curves and record setting performance satisfying man’s need to fly faster than the speed of sound have been sorely missed.

Now America’s aerospace industry is fighting a design war to bring back the days of supersonic speed.

The two front runners have different philosophies but just one goal: designing the next Concord.

Aerion Corp. and Supersonic Aerospace International (SAI) are designing supersonic business jets or SBJ’s, as the industry is now dubbing them, to fly executives and millionaires at twice the speed of today’s planes.

The mini-Concordes are in an engineering dog fight to complete a pre-production aircraft by the year 2013. Billions of dollars are at stake.

Aerion’s design philosophy is to utilize proven conventional technologies and to minimize the plane’s complexity and cost.

The aircraft’s wings will be made from carbon fiber composites for the required level of stiffness and weight, employing construction methods common on modern jet fighters. The fuselage will be made of conventional aluminum alloys.

With a top speed of Mach 1.6, (1,056mph / 1,699kph), slightly slower than the Concorde’s top cruising speed, Aerion eliminates the need for special high-temperature materials and complex systems.

Aerion uses its own patented natural laminar flow technology to greatly reduce drag at supersonic and subsonic speeds.

This new design allows the aircraft to fly gracefully at any speed and utilize existing engine technology designed by Pratt &Whitney, a long time American jet engine manufacturer.

Competitor SAI, has chosen a different and more daring approach. Their engineers are using a design called QSST which stands for “Quiet Supersonic Transport.” This is a revolutionary supersonic jet aircraft developed over the past 6 years with the partnership of US giant Lockheed-Martin. That company’s fabled ‘Skunk Works’ developed American high flying spy planes and the Stealth Bomber.

SAI’s hopes are centered on their patented inverted ‘V-tail’ design and a radical reduction of the sonic boom. Both planes will fly faster than the speed of sound. But QSST is designed to produce a barely noticeable sonic boom – less than 1/100th of the noise the Concorde made. It will fly faster than the Aerion at mach 1.6 to 1.8 almost 1,100 miles an hour.

Both mini-Concordes aim at cutting flight times in half. Cross Atlantic flights will be reduced to about 3 hours, similar to the flights the Concorde made, compared to the seven and a half hours it takes for conventional flights. And trans-pacific flights from America’s west coast to Japan will take as little as 5 hours.

The difference between the two companies is the time it takes flying over populated land areas. Aerion cannot fly at more than 800 miles an hour over the United States and must slow down over other populated areas of the world. Once out over the ocean, unpopulated areas such as Northern Canada, Siberia OR African deserts, it can accelerate to full speed.

The QSST, because of its tiny sonic boom, may change present day world aviation regulations. Eventually it may be able to fly supersonic over any area.

Both jets are expected to carry a price tag of 80 million US dollars, a very high cost for speed and almost twice the cost of today’s most expensive business jets. They will accommodate 8 to 12 passengers, with all the luxury and cabin space of any midsize or large business jet of today.

Aerion has already received 2 billion US dollars in advance orders. Buyers are lining up to place $250,000 deposits. One known buyer is Saudi businessman Tarek bin Laden, the brother of the most wanted terrorist on Earth, Osama bin Laden.

The new planes will be sold to the world’s richest men, large multi-national companies and dictators controlling their country’s treasuries. Others will be internet billionaires, Russians who have taken over entire national industries, shipping line owners and perhaps even a start-up share-a-jet millionaire’s club. The new mini Concords will have a charter cost of about $10,000 per hour.

Aerion believes the initial demand for their 80 million dollar supersonic business jets will come from Europe and the Middle East.

Those prices may go down but not the demand. Two longtime business jet manufacturers, Gulfstream and Falcon-Dassault, have also entered the race for supersonic flight.

Over the past year demand for private business jets has risen 20% and with the continued uncertainty and set backs for commercial aviation around the world, the market will continue to grow with people wanting to fly faster and faster no matter what the cost.

-The End-

By Ron Laytner
and Mark Miller
Copyright 2009
Edit International


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